Texas ID Law Disenfranchises Thousands

Texas' voter ID law requiring voters to show a state-issued photo ID has the potential to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters who can't afford a state ID. Provisional ballots may be cast, but only if voters come back and prove they have the proper credentials within six days of the election. When new IDs cost money, that amounts to a poll tax. Poll taxes were outlawed by an amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the 1960s.

The Justice department was right to sue over Texas' voter ID law.

The justice system was right to sue over Texas' voter ID law.It's always the duty of the federal government to reserve the voting rights of the average citizen. Sometimes states enact laws that are really not in the best interest of the voting citizen .At that point the federal government must step in to preserve democracy.

The law is constitutional.

The expectation that in order to vote you must be an American citizen is just common sense. Voter fraud is a serious crime and the government has the right to create legislation that prevents it. As to the argument that these laws are a poll tax, it isn't hard or expensive at all to get an ID card and voters must be financially inconvenienced no matter what. Nobody advocates that the government pay for free gasoline on Election Day because the cost of driving to the poll is a "poll tax" because the policy is unreasonable. A poll tax is when the person operating the polling place makes you pay him money to vote. It is not a policy that may slightly increase the inconvenience associated with voting.